Five CUs Make Nation’s Top 25 Auto Lenders List: SNL Financial

Competing with some of the nation’s biggest banks, five credit unions made the list for the 25 largest auto lenders among depository institutions in the United States.

According to SNL Financial, the $15 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union, which ranked 22nd, posted the highest quarterly growth rate in auto loans among the top 25 for the fourth quarter in 2012.

The Alexandria, Va.-based cooperative grew its portfolio by 10.9% during that period by pricing its loans very competitively, the data showed.

“Not including any current rate specials, Pentagon Fed's average rate on a 60-month new car loan was 2.74% as of SNL's most recent rate collection date, significantly below the national average rate of 4.24%,” according to the Charlottesville, Va.-based data and analytic firm, which released its analysis Wednesday.

According to SNL Financial, Ally Financial Inc. in Detroit ranked first in its top 25 list of the top auto lenders followed by Wells Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, JP Morgan Chase & Co. in New York, Capital One Financial Corp. in McClean, Va., and Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, N.C.

Despite the rankings, SNL Financial said auto loans only grew 1.27% over 2012’s third quarter figures.

Those figures are in contrast to auto lending growth within the credit union industry last year. As of January, overall vehicle loans were $15.6 billion or 9.3% above the January 2012 level, according to CUNA Mutual Group’s March Credit Union Trends Report. As a result, annual growth in January was at its highest level in more than seven years.